Dennis Haarsager's rolling environmental scan for electronic media. "Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us." --Jerry Garcia "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." --Bob Seger

Twitter @haarsager

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

The end for digital radio - or the start of a listening revolution?

And we thought that the Brits were doing digital radio right.

Owen Gibson and Katie Allen write:

Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were
yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than
expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all
but abandoned the medium. ¶ The owner of Capital Radio, Classic
FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting
(DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new
transmitters and stations. ...

... Claiming the medium was "not economically viable", GCap will
concentrate instead on its existing FM services and innovations in
online listening such as technology allowing iPhone users to hear its
stations. It hopes the moves will save £8.8m a year and help fend off a
takeover approach from a rival group, Global Radio. ...

... With commercial players coming under pressure from the internet and the
dominance of the BBC, some also claim they have failed to invest in
creative new formats. The provision of digital radio in cars has been
undermined by a lack of support for the medium in other European
countries. And a vocal minority of listeners has complained about sound
quality, claiming an early decision to compress the signal to allow for
more stations has left it worse than FM. Coverage outside the main
cities can also be patchy. The technology reaches 80% of the population
but only covers 65% of the UK. ...